On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 1426

Distilled spirits are the concentrated essence
of wine and beer. They’re the product of a
basic chemical fact: different substances boil
atdifferenttemperatures.Theboilingpointof
alcohol is about 173ºF/78ºC, well below
water’s 212ºF/100ºC. This means that if a
mixture of water and alcohol is heated, more
ofthealcoholthanthewaterwillendupinthe
vapor. That vapor can then be cooled and
condensedbackintoaliquidthathasahigher
alcoholic content than the original beer or
wine.
Distilledspiritswerefirstvalued,andstill
are,fortheirhighalcoholcontent.Butthere’s
muchmoretothemthantheirintoxicating
power.Likealcohol,thesubstancesthatgive
wineandbeertheiraromaarealsovolatile:so
thesameprocessthatconcentratesalcohol
alsoconcentratesaroma.Distilledalcohols
aresomeofthemostintenselyflavorfulfoods
wehave.
TheHistoryofDistilledSpirits


TheHistoryofDistilledSpirits

The Discovery of Distillation High
concentrations of alcohol are toxic to all
living things, including the yeasts that
produceit.Brewingyeastscan’ttoleratemore
thanabout20%.Sostrongerdrinkcanonlybe

made by physically concentrating the alcohol
in fermented liquids. The key to discovering
distilled alcohol would have been two
observations: that the vapors of a heated
liquid can be recaptured by condensing them
on a cool surface, and that the vapors of
heated wine or beer are more strongly
alcoholicthantheoriginalliquid.
Thepracticeofdistillationitselfappearsto
beveryold.There’sevidencethatthe
Mesopotamianswereconcentratingthe
essentialoilsofaromaticplantsmorethan
5,000yearsago,usingasimpleheatedpotand
alidontowhichvaporscondensedandcould
becollected.AndAristotlenotedinthe4th
centuryBCEinhisMeteorologythat“Sea